sexta-feira, 25 de novembro de 2016

Fourth MRJ Aircraft Joins Flight Test Program

The fourth Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp. MRJ90 flight test aircraft made its first flight in Japan on Nov. 22.

According to Mitsubishi Aircraft, the aircraft flew for 2 hours and 4 minutes after taking off from Nagoya Airfield at 10:18 a.m. local time.

Two MRJ90 flight test aircraft have already been transferred to the U.S., where Mitsubishi Aircraft is conducting the majority of flight testing toward the regional jet's certification. Two more MRJ90s are expected to be transferred to Mitsubishi Aircraft's U.S. flight testing base at Grant County International Airport in Moses Lake, Washington, by the end of 2016. Mitsubishi Aircraft is planning an expedited flight test program at Moses Lake in an effort to achieve the first delivery of the MRJ90 to launch customer All Nippon Airways (ANA) in the second half of 2018.

A fifth MRJ90 flight test aircraft will remain in Japan. In total, Mitsubishi Aircraft plans to conduct 2,500 hours of flight testing with the five MRJ90 aircraft. So far, it has conducted about 250 hours of flight testing.

Mitsubishi Aircraft expects to achieve the first flight of the MRJ70, the smaller variant in the MRJ program, in the second half of 2017. Aaron Karp, ATW Daily News